The present invention relates to a locating device for avalanche victims comprising a collapsible, balloon-like envelope having a release and drive means to expand said envelope and a connecting element to connect said locating device with the user.
Furthermore, the invention relates to an ejector means for such locating device.
The invention also relates to a pouch to stow such folded locating device.
In order to save the lives of avalanche victims, it is essential to locate and rescue them quickly. Persons entirely buried in an avalanche have a 92% chance of survival if they are rescued within 15 minutes, which means that the help of their companions is the most important measure to save their lives. In order to find and rescue them, it is essential that they are immediately located. Therefore, various ways to locate avalanche victims have been proposed:
In practice, an electronic avalanche victim detector using sending and searching frequencies is often used to locate avalanche victims (see. e.g., FR-A 26 44 700). This detector, however, has proven successful only if its use is practiced repeatedly, which means that in reality the rescue operation using said electronic detector will not proceed smoothly and will often be too late.